Bardock
Burdock (バーダック, Bādakku), is a fictional character in the anime and manga Dragon Ball Z. He is popularly known to audiences around the world as Bardock due to his exclusive introduction in the television special Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku. It was only after the television special first aired in Japan on October 17, 1990,[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/dbz-bardock-the-father-of-goku Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku synopsis and review] that Burdock was given a brief cameo in two panels of the manga by Akira Toriyama, who helped design the character for Toei Doga's theatrical production.Character designs at http://www.daizex.com/ It is interesting to note that this was the first time in Japanese history that a fictional character would be shown in a manga after being created for the anime as filler materialArchived discussion on the character's unique origin from anime to manga. His name is a pun on "burdock" (バードック, bādokku), an herb. While Viz Media's manga use "Burdock", and FUNimation Productions' Japanese-language English-subtitled anime also use "Burdock",FUNimation's anime name in the Japanese audio with English subtitles on the remastered DVD special the FUNimation anime dubs use "Bardock".DVD cover art Some Japanese merchandise even use "Barduck".[http://www.dbzcollection.fr/barcode/cartes/barcode3/images/96_jpg.jpg Dragon Ball Z Super Barcode Wars card name] Nearly all saiyans are named using English-language vegetable puns. Burdock's name (Bādakku) is a pun on "Greater Burdock", a type of root vegetable. In English, the pun is either rendered directly as "Burdock", or transliterated as "Bardock", as the Japanese "ā" is often used to represent both pronunciations. History The biological father of Kakarot (Son Goku on Earth) and Raditz, Burdock is a low-class saiyan mercenary that leads a small group comprised of four others; who, like all saiyans, travel in groups from planet to planet to conquer them and clear the planet of its inhabitants for a high price, only on the orders of the tyrant king Freeza. While still on a mission, he is given the gift of foresight, and collapses shortly afterwards. During rest and recovery, he is suddenly overtaken by futuristic visions in his mind and witnesses the destruction of his home planet Vegeta by the hand of Freeza. While still recovering, it is mentioned by his doctors that his battle power is just reaching 10,000.Power level estimated by observing doctors in the specialGradually, Freeza had feared the increasing power of Burdock and his team, and orders Dodoria to slaughter the five-man squad on their next mission. After Burdock finds out that his teammates had been betrayed and murdered by the orders of Freeza, he vows to avenge his fallen comrades and is suddenly assaulted by Dodoria's Elite. Being able to kill off the entourage, Burdock is overpowered by Dodoria, and lefted for dead. He survives, almost barely, and desparately struggles against time to change his planet's grim fate. He begins by warning some of the people of planet Vegeta about Freeza's plan; none gave ear to his attention, and simply thought that he was in way over his head. Seeing no way as to convince anyone, Burdock takes it on his own by attempting to fight Freeza head on. He ultimately fails at stopping Freeza's rampage on the planet and is killed, along with the rest of the planet's inhabitants, by Freeza's attack. Moments before his death, he has a vision of his son, Kakarot, defeating the warlord. Manga The author, Akira Toriyama, like the character enough to insert him in Volume 10 of the manga in two separate panels. When the character of Freeza notices a resemblance between Son Goku and "the saiyan who resisted until the end", narrated texts confirms that the saiyan Freeza killed many years ago was, in fact, Goku's father. Name Burdock's name is, like all other saiyans, a pun on a plant. In this case, the vegetable "burdock". The word "burdock" transliterated into katakana is "badokku" (バードック, bādokku), but the character's name is written as "badakku" (バーダック, bādakku), changing the 'do' character to 'da'. This character change actually makes the kana sound more like "Burdock" to English speakers, making it difficult to accurately romanize the word to show the pun. The word could be romanized as "Burdock", "Barduck", "Badack" or any combination of those syllables. Voice actors Video games Burdock appears as a playable character in several Dragon Ball Z video games such as: Dragon Ball Z: Sagas, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (with Oozaru form), including the upcoming Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road. In the video game Dragon Ball Z: Super Sonic Warriors 2, Burdock can be selected as a support character. Sources * Taken directly from Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku and manga chapters. References Category:Characters Category:Saiyan